This application is the 35 USC 371 national stage of international application PCT/SE01/00325 filed on Feb. 15, 2001, which designated the United States of America.
The present invention relates to an apparatus for discharging shells from an ammunition magazine, comprising a frame and a drive arrangement supported by the frame for individual linear displacement of shells from a first, ejection position in the magazine to a second, advanced position.
In connection with loading a shell-throwing weapon from the rear end of the barrel of the weapon in mobile units in which the space is limited, a clear requirement exists for compact design of both ammunition magazines and discharging and loading mechanisms for the shells. The discharging apparatus, which ejects the shells individually from the magazine, must be capable of displacing the shells linearly into an advanced position, which is either a position on a loading tray directly behind the barrel of the weapon or an inserted loading position directly inside the latter.
In order to make possible a sufficiently long displacement movement of the shells by means of a discharging apparatus of relatively short overall length, which corresponds essentially to the length of the shells to be discharged, it is proposed according to the present invention that the drive arrangement comprises an endless, first drive element with two elongate, parallel strands, a first ramming element which is connected to the drive element and arranged so as to come into engagement with a rear portion of a shell present in the ejection position and advance the shell to a position between said first and second positions during the movement of the ramming element together with the drive element along one strand of the latter, and a second ramming element arranged so as to come into engagement with the rear portion of the shell present in the intermediate position and advance the shell further to the second, advanced position during the return movement of the first ramming element together with the drive element along the other strand of the latter. By virtue of such a construction of the discharging apparatus, the return movement of the first ramming element is therefore used to produce a further advance movement of each shell by means of a second ramming element, as a result of which it is possible to obtain a long feed distance for the shell in two steps in relation to the length of the discharging apparatus itself.
According to a preferred shell-discharging arrangement according to the invention, two discharging apparatuses of the type described above are arranged side by side in a mirror-inverted manner in relation to one another on a common frame, the arrangement being positioned between two adjacent, parallel magazines for shells.
Further features of the apparatus according to the invention are indicated in the dependent patent claims below.